Saving
by Josephine Rayne
Summary: A visit to a friendly village turns deadly for the explorers... Completed!


The Lost World  
"Saving"  
By: Josephine Rayne   
E-Mail: BaSk546840@aol.com  
Summery: A visit to a friendly village, turns deadly for the explorers.  
Rated: PG   
Genre: Action Adventure/Drama/Romance/Mystery  
Time span: Somewhere during the second season, but Summerlee is still there.  
~*~  
"Saving"  
Part 1  
  
"Finally the first village we've come to where nothing happens." stated Ned Malone as the explorers walked through the jungle towards the tree house. Three days ago they has stumbled onto a village while looking for a possible way off the plateau. Of course, their lead had proved fruitless, but the village they found was a nice, cozy one. The villagers (the Arikas), lived in wooden muffin shaped houses, and their lifestyle reminded Malone of the Iroquois Indians that he had learned about in grade school.  
  
"It's good to be home." Marguerite exclaimed as she made herself comfortable on one of the chairs. The Arikas' village was pleasant, but they lived somewhat savagely at least to Marguerite's standards, and besides she had just spent days walking, What she needed now was some food, a bath, some champagne---  
  
"I think I'm going to go to bed." Malone declared interrupting Marguerite's thoughts, gently rubbing his forehead. He had been feeling a bit ill, the last couple of days, and couldn't quite figure out what was wrong.   
  
"Ned?" Veronica asked. "Are you feeling alright?"  
  
"Fine. Just a little headache."  
***  
The next day, Challenger, Summerlee, Roxton, Veronica, and Marguerite awoke with the rising sun. "Malone's still not up?" Challenger replied as he ate his breakfast.   
  
"Maybe I should check on him?" said Veronica, but she was already walking towards Malone's room.  
  
"Ned?" she called, but soon saw the sleeping Malone. "Ned?" she tried again as she continued to shake Malone awake. Gingery she touched his forehead only to find that he was burning up. Sweat trickled down his face and he seemed to be developing a rash as well.   
  
"I don't know what it could be." Summerlee replied. "He's burning up but he claims to be freezing. And that rash? I've never seen it before, it has a greenish tone to it. Plus the spasms? I have no idea what to do." Summer replied truthfully as he touched Malone's forehead once more,   
  
"So, then it's a disease only from the plateau," Stated Roxton standing nearby. "But, that means-"  
  
"-That means's if we don't know what it is, we can't treat it." Marguerite piped in.  
  
"Exactly." Challenger concluded as he paced the floor.   
  
"The village." Veronica stated suddenly. It must have been from the village."  
  
"No wait a minute, if it's from the village, then why haven't we gotten it?" Marguerite questioned.  
  
"I don't know, but it's the only lead we've got. We have to go back. The Arika's know something."  
  
"Veronica's right . We have no other option." Challenger replied as attention was drawn back to the sleeping Malone.  
***  
"You think he'll be alright till we come back?" Veronica asked as the group which consisted of herself, Roxton and Challenger as they walked the now familiar path to the Arika's village.  
  
"Malone will be fine." Roxton said trying to convince Veronica. But, she was worried anyhow, how could they find a cure for a disease they didn't even know? That past night Veronica had read over all her parents journals hoping to find anything that could save Malone. She had found nothing.   
  
"The explorers!" Chief Mantal the Arika's chief exclaimed as he say the group. He shared the same gift as Marguerite being able to understand many different languages, English had been one of them.   
  
"Malone is very-"Veronica started.  
  
"He is very ill. Am I right?" Mantal exclaimed. "So are many of my people."   
  
"Yes, he is. What is it?" Challenger replied as he and the others were led to the chief's hut.   
  
"We do not know. We have never seen anything like this before. My people think it is you who brought it here." Roxton had looked around the village. When they had first arrived only a few days before it had see lively and spirited, now it was gloomy and cold as if the energy had almost been sucked out of it. "Us?" he replied.  
  
"Do not worry, I know better. I believe this illness is traveled not by human but by something else. "  
  
"Fascinating." Challenger began.  
  
"This illness, has any if your people died from it?" Roxton stated.  
  
"Yes, a handful so far. When it's close to the end the victim starts to vomit blood and their eyes will open and be all white. Then they will start to suffocate, until death. This only takes a few days." Mantal contiuded. " If there is anyway you can help, please. I do not want anymore to die this way."   
  
"Nor do we." Roxton replied as Veronica interrupted. "We have to do something. We can't let Malone die!"   
  
"Wait, Summerlee knows of some herbs that can cure, I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Maybe he can help." Chageller replied getting up from the table.   
  
"We have to tell the others." Roxton replied as well.   
  
"No, you can not leave the village."  
***  
"They are not going to find anything at that village." Marguerite mumbled as Summerlee sat by Malone's bed and placed a cold cloth on his head.   
  
"What I don't understand is why we aren't affected." he stated confused.   
  
It had been hours since Malone had first gotten sick, and Summerlee wanted desperately to help is young friend. Was this fatal? He kept asking himself hoping it was not true. Ned had become almost like a son to him and he would not let him die without a fight.  
***  
"What do you mean we can't go?" Veronica said ready to fight.   
  
"The whole village is under quarantine. What if the rest of the plateau gets this? Mass dying, wars started. Would you want that to happen?' Matal explained.  
  
"We have to get back. They don't know what to expect." Roxton said.  
  
"There is a small hut outside the village, they haven't been exposed. They will return with our friends." Mantal advised.  
  
So, a party was sent for the others, and still Malone remained sick. In her endless worry for him, Veronica did not see that she too was becoming ill….  
***  
Part 2  
  
"Danger is upon you. Do not continue!" a short, plum lady dressed in a black cape stated as she appeared suddenly before them. Malone lay on the stretcher as he was carried by two Arika warriors ahead of Marguerite and Summerlee. Two other warriors brought up the rear. Thought the explorers had no idea who this mysterious woman was, the Arikan men seemed to as they began to attach her. But, this proved fruitless, as she stared blankly at them and screamed, "Stop!." and raised her hand up sending the men falling backwards. "Turn back." she said again, this time turning to Malone who was now laying on the stretcher unaware of what was going on. "This one will die anyway. This is not your fight."  
  
"Not if I can help it!" Summerlee spoke up getting out of the state of awe this woman had seemed to put Marguerite and himself in.   
  
"You have been warned." she spoke finally then disappearing as quickly as she came.   
***  
Akmon sneaked over the gate, darted his way across the jungle and soon found himself back to his home.  
  
The Arangi village.   
  
60 years before Akmon was born the Arika and Aragni people lived as one. Then two strangers came and divided the people. They told the Argani that the Arikas would steal their land and crops from them and vise versa. There was confusion, violence and disorder in the land, till finally a young chief, a chief named Mantal decided that the two peoples should break apart and live separately. However, the Arikas and Arangi would never find peace with each other again, they blamed one another for their problems, they feuded. The time of great turmoil it was called. Also, one could not tell if they were pure Arangi or pure Arika they had mixed together during the time before the great turmoil. Akmon's mother Maylie did not know she was not pure Arika till it was too late.   
  
"Come my son. Is it done?" Chief Otomong stated as Akmon came into his tent.   
  
"It is finished."   
  
Otomong was not a evil man, he had tried to do everything in his power to stop this, but now he felt like he had no choice. It is a sad day, he said to himself. I do this because I must, not because I can.  
  
"I need to know something, Akmon. Why do you do this to the people of your birth? You have lived among us for 13 years and I have come to trust and love you like my own son, but I need to know this, why would the eldest son of Chief Mantal go against him?"   
  
"I as you said I have lived among you for a long time. There is no Arika blood left in me anymore. I do not belong to a tribe nor a man who would cast away his wife and child just because he found out they were not pure Arika, but pure Arangi. So, that is what I am now, 13 years after I was thrown away at 7 and 8 years after my mother, Maylie died from heartbreak because of him. Since I was 12 I have lived on my own in this village, the boy-between- two- worlds, Akmon, you renamed me because that is what I am. I am Arangi but because of my Arika birth I am not excepted. Yet I am not excepted there either. But, you have given me shelter and been the only father I have know for these past 2 years and still today on the eve of my 20th birthday. I will not betray you, let them die!"  
  
* * *  
  
Luckily, for Marguerite and Summerlee the old woman did not appear to them again and finally they made it back to the Arika village. They did not predict Veronica getting ill as well, and it made all wonder if this unknown disease had more to claim.  
  
"Chief, Ermondi was seen in the village!" the chief's lesser leader spoke to him.  
  
"Has he escaped?" the worried and now aged chief questioned.   
  
"Yes." the lesser lead said bowing his head and leaving.  
  
"Who is this Ermondi?" Roxton asked the chief.  
  
"Ermondi or Akmon as he is know called, is my son, my eldest son with my first wife Maylie. I cast him and his mother away when he was 7 and they went to go live with the Argani, our enemies. This is why I had to cast them away, when I was told by my lesser leaders that Maylie was not pure Arika but Arangi I couldn't have her as my queen nor have my son in line to be the next chief. I was pressured by my lesser leaders and my people there was nothing more I could do. I am not proud of what I done and Ermondi had never forgiven me for it."  
  
"So, then why was he here? How long has it been?" Challenger questioned further.  
  
"It had been 13 years, he is about 20 now. I do not know why he comes." he chief started. "But, I think he must have been spying for the Arangi. I must go now and help my people prepare for attack." he said strained. With the sickness killing his people he did not need an attack as well.  
  
"This peaceful village didn't turn out to be what it seemed has it." Roxton thought out loud.  
  
"What are we doing? This isn't helping Malone or Veronica or the rest of the sick villagers. We don't have much time." Marguerite piped in.   
* * *  
Akmon kept the antidote to the disease he had infected the Arikas with in his pocket almost smiling to himself. It had been his idea to infect them with the deadly illness an then attack them, not chief Otomong's. After spending 2 years as his "apprentice" he knew that Otomong would never think of or want to do anything like this on his own. He was a peaceful man, just like Akmon's father. As a child Akmon had been like that too, but now he was full of hate and revenge and could not see beyond that. He wanted so desperately to get back at his father for casting him away and for killing his mother.   
  
"We are ready to attack. Let us go son." Otomong called to Akmon.   
* * *  
"I have warned you now there will be nothing I can do to save you. You are strangers not Arangi or Arika this is not your fight." the old woman said appearing to all this time. The Goddess of foreigners, Mantal had explained. She had appeared to the Otomong and Mantal soon after the time of great turmoil to show them that all strangers did not want to hurt, just as the two did who spilt them apart. And from then on she had come to protect strangers, like the explorers.   
  
"We are staying." Challenger told her and she shook her head and disappeared. Moments later the attack bell was ringing though out the village.   
  
The group took but their guns and ran outside to help the villagers. The brutal, bloody seemed to go on for hours and hours on end. Never ceasing. Neither side won until finially the Arangi was pushed back. Akmon's bloody plan ad not worked, the Arika's were stronger then he had thought, and he was captured.   
* * *  
"Ermondi." Mantal stated as he saw his son tied up in his hut. "Otomong has told me what you have done and the antidote has been given to Professor Summerlee. It will be given to my people. You have failed." Akmon spat in his father's face.  
  
"Chief Mantal the murderer of women." he said reminding his father of his mother's dead. Maylie, the love of his life Mantal often said to himself.   
  
"You are a disgrace. I am sad to say you are my son. What a sad day this is. You will e banished. Banished from both tribes. For we will be united as one again, both Otomong and I want peace, we can see that now. Our people will follow." Mantal said turning away from him. Suddenly, Akmon charged at him knife in hand, lunging for his father's back. He did not see the lesser leader behind him nor the knife in his hand.   
  
"Ermondi!" Matal cried as he raced to his son's side forgetting what they had both done and just remembering that this was his son.   
  
"Father." Akmon chocked out until he finally let go.  
* * *  
"Do you think death was the best punishment for, Akmon?" Malone asked Veronica as they stood outside and on the porch of the treehouse days after they had left the village. The antidote had cured them both and the goddess had made sure they got home safely. When they had left the two warring tribes were beginning talks of peace.  
  
"Of course. He almost killed you and I and an entire village just for revenge." Veronica replied.  
  
"I know. I'm not saying he shouldn't have been punished but, what happened to him wasn't his fault, he didn't ask to be born. He learned to hate and then that hate was feed by another hate of the Arangi and then finally he couldn't control it anymore."  
  
"I don't know." she said.   
* * *  
The end! 


End file.
